Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1887-08-27

Of things" Why then persist in
saddling us with that word govern
ment," denoting some foreign will
imposing itself on society?
Quite the contrary; we would have
below perfectly free citizens, indie
pendent Of any all individuals, Sc
Letting from persons, known to
them, their foremcn, and these again
selecting their directors, and so on
upwards; a pure democracy, in other
words, with appointments from be-
low instead of from above. That is
the only way to answer the puzzling
question: How shall we get compc-
tent, wise, and skillful persons to
direct affairs? That kind of persons
are sure to gravitate toward the d.
rection of affairs in n pure democracy
with such selection of them. They,
then, will form in no sense IL "gov-
eminent" but be simply the agents
of Society. having the three func-
tions of manager, statistician and ar
bitrator.
But what blunder George again
commits when he states that think
"mcrely" of producing departments;
and not Of those exchanging things.
| do, nevertheless, include transport
alton and exchange in production,
simply because the former add value
to the product as well rs work on
raw material. George will therefore
please note, that the exchange and
transportation departments are or
ganized exactly as the others: the
statesmen and saleswomcn in the large
bazaars and the men on the railroads
selecting their superiors as well.
When then certain number of
goods are finished in the factories,
they are distributed among the
bazaars for sale by the COLLECTIVELY as
manager, as the raw materials are to
the factories for production.
cannot for my life see why it
should be so difficult seriously to
imagine such u scheme in actual
operation in country like the
United States" if we bring only a
little good will to the task but per-
haps the good will is wanting. It
certainly is, if George persists in
speaking of "eXtcnding the func-
tons of government" Socialism
will not extend the functions of
government" 1t will simply change
the character of those who now dc
our business, perform the services.
Any one can see by observing, that
we have a vast mass of directors
employers or whatever else they
may be called) now; these will be
changed into public functionaies.:
that is all. So far from their num-
Der being increased, is it not evident,
that with order and economy, vast
number can advantageously be dis
pcnsed with?
certainly one great gam Will be
affected by this change of character.
The business of the Society will new
err be we'll performed as long as it is
looked upon rather from the stand
point of the producer than that of
the consumer, Society, in another
word. BY becoming public func-
tionary he will lose the petty charac-
ter he now has of q worker who per-
forms his task in order to live or to
get rich, and will gain the dignity of
one who performs social office.
When George speaks of Socialists
essaylng to "cut knot they do not
see how to unravel by making the
State the sole capitalist" | wish to
remark that if he knew what Social
lists had written in foreign languages,
he might have found them unravel-
ling the knot, and if he will do me
the honor of reading my forthcoming
book, "Danton in the French Revo-
luton" he may find me trying to
do the same.